One Who Is Deserving
by Erin Cale
Summary: Newly married, Eowyn takes a moment to speak with the dead. Movieverse EowynFaramir


One Who Is Deserving

By ErinCale

**Disclaimer:** LotR is not mine. I just enjoy writing about these characters.

**Rating:** PG-13/T, just in case. It should probably be lower, but I'm paranoid that my story will be removed for having too low a rating for its content.

**Summary: **Newly married, Eowyn takes a moment to speak with the dead. Eowyn/Faramir.

----Just a warning, this is my first LotR fanfic and has not been beta-read. So any mistakes are mine and mine alone.----

Faramir smiled as Eowyn curled into him. Even in sleep, she was the most stunning creature he had ever beheld. Just to think that he had had the great fortune to even meet her- let alone to lie at her side now as her husband- made Faramir thank every deity from every culture he could name.

He did not deserve such a woman.

The smile faded as the thought crossed his mind yet again. It was never far in his waking thoughts- closer still in his dreams. His eyelids shut quickly, but not before one tear had escaped him. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, he leaned over and kissed Eowyn on the forehead.

"I do not deserve you." The tear dropped from his cheek to roll down her temple even as Faramir rose from the bed. Not quite awake, but feeling suddenly cold, Eowyn opened her eyes by a hair's breadth to find the coverlet. Then she turned over to return to the dreaming place.

As a child, she had frequently come to the river's edge to escape her woes. Now an adult, she retraced the familiar landscape with the lightness of step that only dreamers can produce.

"Eowyn." The familiar voice caused her to turn from her reflections. There, coming to a stop beside her, was Theoden king, exactly as he had been in the time between his recovery from Grima and his death.

"Uncle!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around the man who had been so like a father to her.

"Ahh, my lovely Eowyn. How are you faring, my child?"

"Very well. I became a wife this very morning."

"To the lord Faramir," Theoden responded. "I know. I have watched over you since my death; all of your family has, in fact. But my mind is yet troubled. Eowyn, tell me truly: are you happy?"

"My uncle, if you can see enough of my life to know who I have married, surely you can see how happy he makes me simply by being in the same room."

"I saw all outward appearances of happiness, but I need to hear it from your lips."

Eowyn smiled. "Very well, uncle. Faramir brings me a level of happiness the likes of which I have never known. There is nothing I would not do to bring him the same level of feeling."

"Then I am satisfied." Theoden took her hands in his own and gave them an affectionate squeeze. "But come. Your time here is not mine. This night is for others."

"But uncle-"

"Hush, my child." He smiled at her. "There will be other nights when we can talk and other nights when I shall bring with me Theodred and your parents. It is, however, of great importance that this night be given to others." Still smiling, he gently placed her hands back at her side and stepped away. "Until we see each other again, my child."

"Until then, uncle." Even as she said the words, his form disappeared from her view. Strangely happy, she sat down on the banks of the river to await the others her uncle had mentioned.

It was in this moment that she heard her beloved's voice.

"I do not deserve you."

At the sensation of something wet sliding across her face, Eowyn felt herself begin to wake. Her conscious mind not yet fully operational, she was aware only of her eyes opening a fraction before falling back into sleep. When she returned to the riverside, she remembered only that she had heard a voice speaking to her. She was distracted from trying to remember exactly what had been said when she noticed three figures waiting for her. She stood and curtseyed out of courtesy to these strangers.

Two men there were, one old with a face that seemed to have been cut from the coldest stone, the other a warrior with a guileless quality to his demeanor. The third figure was a beautiful woman in whom Eowyn could see a great deal of Faramir.

"You must be the lady Eowyn," the younger man said with a deep bow. "We are come to welcome you to our family."

"Your family?" It took Eowyn a moment before she made the connection. "You are Faramir's family."

"Yes dear," the woman replied. "I am Finduilas, Faramir's mother. This-" she touched her hand to the older man's arm but he remained motionless- "is Denethor, Faramir's father. And this-" her hand left Denethor to alight on the young warrior's shoulder, "is Boromir, Faramir's elder brother."

"It is an honor to meet all of you," Eowyn said with another curtsey. It was at that moment, however, that her mind finally processed what had happened during her brief waking and she remembered. The sorrow in her husband's voice as he claimed to be so completely undeserving cut her to her very soul and she felt her own eyes fill up in response.

"My sister?" Boromir took her hands gently in his. "What is it?"

Eowyn opened and shut her mouth several times, but to no avail. No words parted from them.

"Ah, so it is proven," Denethor muttered. "The only kind of woman who would marry my second-born son is one who has the intelligence of a worm."

"Hush!" Finduilas snapped. By the expression on the faces of the two men, this attitude was either something new, or something rarely expressed. "Your new daughter is far more intelligent and courageous than you know. It is a fact that, in the war of the ring, _she_ delivered the killing strike to the witchking of Angmar."

"Indeed?" Denethor looked at Eowyn again, this time with something akin to respect in his gaze. "Then perhaps you are the son I should have had in Faramir's place."

Finally, Eowyn regained some of her composure. "No, Denethor Soul-Crusher. Should I have been your second-born son, I would not have remained long in your house. Would it have meant death, I would have run far from your city as soon as I was able. Both your sons, it seems, have more endurance than I."

"Soul-Crusher," Denethor spat back sarcastically. "What was there to crush in my second son? He is a spineless, pathetic excuse for a creature!"

Two grey eyes lit with a fire that made both Boromir and Finduilas back away. When Eowyn spoke, the venom in her voice shocked even Denethor into a state of speechlessness.

"You believe wrong! In my eyes, it took far more courage for him to endure you these past years than you ever once showed in your confrontations with the enemy. My love believes he is unworthy of me. _You_ taught him to hold such a low opinion of himself. In my perception, that makes _you_ unworthy of being part of _our _family. When Faramir and I have children, they will ask about their ancestors. I will tell them of lady Finduilas and lord Boromir. When they ask about their father's father, I shall not speak one word. Denethor, you are not worth the air used to say your name. Now-" Eowyn raised one hand and pointed to the far distance- "Leave!"

Denethor frowned but, surprising both his wife and his son, disappeared quietly into the scenery. Eowyn's frown remained until she felt first Finduilas and then Boromir enclose her in their arms.

"I think you are the perfect wife for our Faramir," she heard the warrior whisper. "Welcome to the family, little sister."

Faramir stood at the window, blind to all but his inner thoughts. So when two arms wrapped themselves around him, the man couldn't help but jump slightly. He calmed though when he smelled Eowyn's scent and felt her head burrow into his shoulder.

Though her voice was somewhat muffled when she spoke, the words yet managed to lift his spirit from its dark depths.

"You are entirely deserving, my Faramir, and I will happily spend the rest of my life proving it to you."


End file.
